Homeward bound

We're making good progress on our way home. On Friday we tackled 20 locks, surprisingly there were very few boats on the move & we got through 13 of the 15 Audlem locks before meeting another boat. The fact that all bar one had been set against us was a tad unlucky, but we made up for it at Adderley where they were all in our favour.

We stopped for a brew half way up the Audlem flight

Working boat & butty started down the Adderley flight as we finished it.

On Saturday we went through the 5 Tyrley Locks, a flight partly passing through a rock cutting.

Approaching the bottom lock at Tyrley

We spent the night at Norbury Junction and woke up to our first heavy frost of the season. I wiped a mixture of condensation & ice off of the inside of the windows in the morning, no wonder it had felt a bit chilly in the night. The fantastic atmospheric scenery in the morning more than made up for any discomfort.

Chilly M

A misty Norbury Junction

The sun was trying to break through

Great effects with the sun & mist

M's chimney web

Our new mugs provided buckets of tea & warm hands

On Sunday we made it as far as Wheaton Aston, where we had an early finish when we discovered that the garage selling cheap diesel doesn't open on Sundays. For a saving of over 10p a litre we decided it was worth the wait. We've now made another turn for home onto the Staffs & Worcester Canal & have stopped just beyond Gailey, where it's blowing a hooly. Hopefully it will ease up after lunch, in which case we plan to make for Great Haywood this afternoon.

Llangollen Roundup

We spent 2 weeks on the Llangollen Canal, taking 3 1/2 days to get up & then coming back at a more leisurely pace. We're now heading for home, having left the Llangollen Canal yesterday (Wed, October 10), and are now moored in Audlem sitting out the latest spell of bad weather.  We`ll head up the Audlum flight (15 locks) before the weekend, we hope.

We can now see why everyone raves about the Llangollen Canal & why it's the most visited on the system. Undoubtedly the highlight was the Pontcysylite Aqueduct, which we have already blogged, but it was so good it's worth another mention! We were really lucky with the weather on the way up, as the shadow of us crossing projected onto the football field below was amazing. The rest of the canal was impressive as well, with lovely scenery & lots of very well maintained mooring spots. The only downside was the fact that despite being 'out of season', it was still very busy with hire boats, especially at the top end. Most were fine, but we've never seen as many cases of bank assisted cornering & braking before. We had one very close shave whilst moored, when a hire boat careered into the armco barrier a few feet ahead of us whilst the couple on the back were consulting their Nicholson Guide rather than looking where they were going. Luckily they only got us on the rebound, but it was all a bit too close for comfort and a hell of a jolt. I'd hate to be up there in the Summer.

What did the canal have to offer....?

Open countryside

Whixall Moss NNR

HIlly bits

Craggy bits (of countryside)...

Narrow bits

high bits.....the Chirk Aqueduct is almost as impressive as the Pontcysylite, running beside the railway viaduct

At least the Chirk Aqueduct  had an edge!

A staircase lock... but with a lock-keeper not as approachable as most!

At Llangollen we climbed up to Dinas Bran Castle, visited the source of the canal, and had visitors for tea.

Climbing up to the castle...

... was well worth the effort

The Horseshoe Falls where water is channeled from the R Dee into the canal

The  start of the Llangollen Canal 

Lou (Simon's sister) practises her hairdressing skills.... It`s not funny.

Fell (Lou`s family hound) was quite at home -we tried unsuccessfully to dognap him

We also saw a couple of interesting boats

A boat with a 'shunt' ie a butty that's pushed rather than pulled

A 'caraboat' - a boat that can be towed by a car

And visited a few nice places including Elesmere & Whitchurch.

Whitchurch....they must have known we were coming!

So, all in all, we had a very pleasant time up the LLangollen. We purposefully didn't go up the Montgomery Canal, we decided to leave that for next time...

Kelvin K2

A number of years ago we passed through Braunston on a hire boat and spotted an old Gardner powered Atkinson lorry (left) at a diesel engine repair specialist beside the canal.   We were contemplating buying our own boat at the time and Simon, having seen the old lorry, started reminiscing about his days as a lorry driver and lorry mechanic back in the 1970s.  It was then that he announced that after all those years working with those old engines, when we get a boat it`ll be fitted with a ... nice modern Isuzu.  Unlike children, he said, engines should be neither seen nor heard.  And so M has a nice 42hp, four cylinder Isuzu buried below the cruiser stern, well away from our eyes and (almost) from our ears.  Simon lifts the deck once a week and has a look to see if it is still there and that`s about it. 

Well, that`s how it was.  Recently, I`ve noticed him wiping it with a rag and starting it up with the deck cover off to "listen to her" or "to make sure she is alright".  It all started about three weeks ago on the Shropshire Union at Audlum when we were moored next to a tug called Strider.  The boat had an engine that can really only be described as a caricature of an engine. The owner admitted that he bought the engine, not the boat.  This was clearly evident by the enormous removable plate in the roof above the engine - for use when the boat wears out and the engine has to be fitted with a new one. 

What was special about it?  It came out of a 1930`s fishing trawler for a start.  It was enormous, covered in brass bits and started on petrol but ran on diesel.  If this wasn`t enough, it sounded, even to me, wonderful.  It`s tickover was mesmerizing - not a bad thing in many ways as in its original use it would probable have run continuously for weeks on end.  The engine was a Kelvin K2 (two cylinder) made in Scotland.

The tug Strider at Audlum - with M behind

Strider`s beautiful Kelvin (K2) engine

Such Fun!

On our way up the LLangollen we had an extra crew member for a few days. Julie & I went to school together, and since she emigrated to New Zealand 20 years ago we've only met up twice, during her previous visits in 2003 & 2006. Her parents kindly volunteered to drive up from High Wycombe & drop Julie off so that we could meet up again. They managed to track us down in Wrenbury last Wednesday afternoon, and after a quick cuppa set off for a few nights in what turned out to be Cheshire's answer to Fawlty Towers. We meanwhile put Julie to work & went through 4 locks before stopping for the night. Julie was staying until Friday afternoon & we decided to see how far we could get. We thought it would  be nice to get as far as the Pontcysylite Aqueduct, although we knew that was a bit ambitious! As it turned out, we only made it as far as Chirk, but the weather was pretty kind to us & Julie got to try out lots of different jobs!

Julie working a lock....

...and a lift bridge

Having a rest & riding up through the staircase locks

Steering....and drinking tea (needs much more practice at the tea drinking!)

 Chirk Aquaduct.....we didn't have time to go across in M, for which I think Julie was grateful! 

Julie looking relieved at heading back onto dry land!

We really enjoyed having Julie aboard & just hope that the experience hasn't scarred her for life!